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Purveyor

(29,876 posts)
Thu Apr 10, 2014, 12:25 PM Apr 2014

Trailer Parks Lure Wall Street Investors Looking for Double-Wide Returns

When Dan Weissman worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and, later, at a hedge fund, he didn’t have to worry about methamphetamine addicts chasing his employees with metal pipes. Or SWAT teams barging into his workplace looking for arsonists.

Both things have happened since he left Wall Street and bought five mobile home parks: four in Texas and one in Indiana. Yet he says he’s never been so relaxed in his life, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its May issue.

Weissman, a University of Michigan economics graduate, attributes his newfound calm to the supply-demand equation in the trailer park industry. With more of the U.S. middle class sliding into poverty and many towns banning new trailer parks, enterprising owners are getting rich renting the concrete pads and surrounding dirt on which residents park their homes.

“The greatest part of the business is that we go to sleep at night not ever worrying about demand for our product,” Weissman, 34, says. “It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Better yet, Weissman says, the field isn’t packed with the hyper-driven geeks and MBAs who crowd technology and finance in the San Francisco Bay area, where he and David Shlachter, his business partner and brother-in-law, both live.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-10/trailer-parks-lure-investors-pursuing-double-wide-returns.html

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djean111

(14,255 posts)
3. A friend of mine lives in a mobile home community close by - 245 mobile homes,
Thu Apr 10, 2014, 12:47 PM
Apr 2014

$500 a month from each one, that includes trash and water. Almost $1.5 million a year. Residents are responsible for everything else, including trees on the lot they rent.
Not for me.

RebelOne

(30,947 posts)
7. I live in a mobile home park here in North Georgia.
Thu Apr 10, 2014, 02:02 PM
Apr 2014

I pay $384 a month which also includes water and two trash pickups a week. The park takes care of trees on the property. I am only responsible for the upkeep on my mobile home.

 

djean111

(14,255 posts)
9. My friend's park makes the lot renters take care of the trees, which is expensive here in Florida.
Thu Apr 10, 2014, 02:23 PM
Apr 2014

The park manager asked me if I was interested in buying a home there and I said no, the lot rent was not too far from my mortgage (including taxes and ins.) and then I still had to pay for electric and internet/phone, taxes and insurance on the mobile home, plus pay for tree services.
And I think they impose special assessments for some things, too. yeah, they have a nice big pool and clubhouse, but it is not close to much of anything, either. Plus someone told me the place is full of cliques and gossip. So no. I am more of a loner.

RebelOne

(30,947 posts)
8. Excuse me, but mobile home parks are not slums.
Thu Apr 10, 2014, 02:03 PM
Apr 2014

The park I live in is kept up beautifully and none of the homes could be classified as slums.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
5. Everything's Open for Business Again!
Thu Apr 10, 2014, 01:48 PM
Apr 2014


Warren Buffet buying up the top Real Estate Firms (many Family Owned) all over America and Blackstone Hedge Fund and Others...Renting out the Homes that were in many cases confiscated from innocent people in the 2007-08 Crash.

Xithras

(16,191 posts)
6. My father in law recently bought a triple wide in a mobile home park.
Thu Apr 10, 2014, 01:56 PM
Apr 2014

We joked that he was becoming the families token redneck until I visited him the first time. Beautifully landscaped medians and parks, huge and beautiful community areas, free high speed wifi over the entire development, CCR's that establish maintenance and upkeep standards without micromanaging everything...I was genuinely impressed.

My FIL explained that the park was owned by a couple of Bay Area investors who believed that "mobile communities" didn't have to be slums. My daughter quickly pointed out that the SF Bay Area may be the only place on the planet where even the trailer parks are gentrified

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
10. K&R...goes along with the Alternet Article about Blackstone, etc. buying up foreclosures to rent
Fri Apr 11, 2014, 09:55 AM
Apr 2014

posted here today.

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